Ninety-nine teams and 118 vehicles from the U.S, Mexico, Canada and
Brazil participated in the Shell Eco-Marathon, March 29th through April
1st, at Discovery Green in downtown. The challenge encourages students
to design and build energy-efficient vehicles. High school and college
students test cars of the future, vehicles they have designed and built
to see which can go the farthest distance using the least amount of
fuel.

Students competed in two different design classes: the UrbanConcept,
aimed to build fuel economy vehicles that resemble today's cars, and
Prototypes, which tasked competitors with building the most aerodynamic
and fuel-efficient vehicles.

"I'm excited to get it on the road," David Nguyen, a UH alumnus
helping the Eco-H team said prior to the competition. "It's been
a-year-and-a-half-long project."

Team Eco-H entered its hydrogen fuel cell car called Hydro-Core in
UrbanConcept, a competition that UH has competed in for the past five
years.

"The first semester was all planning design," said Julio Cornejo, a
senior studying mechanical engineering technology. "The other two
consisted of construction."

Team SuperLeggera, a five-student team building UH's first entry into
the Prototype division, started planning its vehicle last summer. The
entry met the requirement for the students’ Senior Design Project.
Construction began in November.

"A lot of sacrifice went into this," said Jose Guerrero, a senior
studying mechanical engineering technology. "Our car has a teardrop
shape so it's a lot more aerodynamic."